Cake or Death?: cream cheese

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Oh Yes I Did: Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies

Two words: sugar cookies.

Two more words: cinnamon rolls.

One question: can they be combined?

Oh, yeahhhhh.

This recipe-slash-BEST-IDEA-EVER comes courtesy of Jenny at Picky Palate. The second I saw it I bookmarked the page and returned regularly to drool, plan, and plot my way into making these cookies.

The idea couldn't be simpler. Take some sugar cookie dough and roll it out into a thin-ish sheet. (Mine worked best when it was about 1/4-inch thick.) Spread on some softened butter--I'm sorry, but it must be done--and then sprinkle liberally with brown sugar and cinnamon. Treat these babies like the cinnamon rolls they aspire to be!

Roll the dough, slice it into thick rounds, then bake it up. The cookies blossom into soft, sweet rounds with crisp edges and moist middles, with a buttery cinnamon swirl threaded throughout.

And did I mention the finishing touch? A drizzle of cream cheese icing, with a touch of vanilla or lemon, to complete the resemblance to cinnamon rolls, no yeast dough required.

I made these with leftover sugar cookie dough, and it's just about the best use for leftover dough I can imagine. The dough was fairly stiff and meant to be used to make precise cutout cookies. I suspect a soft dough that makes those pillowy round sugar cookies would work even better. If you'd like a recipe for the sugar cookies themselves, I'll refer you to the source at Picky Palate for further enlightenment.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Carrot Cake Cookies

Huzzah! After a week of ~~frantic unpacking~~ leisurely opening a box or two at a time, the new kitchen is finally in workable condition. The best part is, it has a big window and enough room for a wee table on which to take photographs, so there'll be no more carrying food from the kitchen to the dining room to get pictures.

I'd like to say the first thing I baked was this week's TWD recipe, but the truth is I made these (fabulous) Snickerdoodle Blondies over the weekend, and then we scarfed them too quickly to get a picture. Moving on!

The second thing I baked were these Gingered Carrot Cookies, chosen by Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina.
I added carrots, coconut, pecans, and dried cranberries to the mix, and I have to say, the dough was delicious. I found myself doing a little of the ole one-for-you, one-for-me trick when scooping it onto the baking sheets. After they were baked, they had a beautiful soft, cakey texture, with just enough carrots to make them seem healthy.

However, the next day, I thought they were leaning toward tasting a little stale, and a little plain. So I did what I always do when confronted with less than stellar baked goods: add frosting.

I made a simple cream cheese frosting and topped some cookies with a dollop of frosting and crushed pecans. I also tried a few whoopie-pie style, which worked out surprisingly well despite their bumpy texture.
My favorite variation was the cookies topped with the layer of frosting, because it had the maximum frosting-to-cookie balance.

These will probably never replace the classic chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie, but they were tasty and different, and I could see making them when I wanted a fun variation on carrot cake.

Q: What's your favorite cakey cookie? I've made some "banana bread cookies" that were...well, just what they sound like. Pretty fab! What about you?